Which is undoubtedly very bad news for the sector.
Embracer Group is already a fairly well-known company in the field, something that is not precisely due to the great games they have launched on the market, but rather this is due to the large number of studios they have acquired in recent years. For example, we are talking about the company that decided to acquire Square Enix’s western studios, which surprised us all a while ago. In the process, they’ve acquired huge IPs that have given us some of the best games ever, but all that glitters is not gold.
Today we woke up with the sad news that Embracer Group plans to cut costs, which implies canceling projects, layoffs and other measures that seem to take place later. This, specifically, has been shared by Lars Wingefors, CEO of this companyin a statement in which he has expressed that this restructuring will allow them to face the economic problems of the market.
Open letter by Embracer Group CEO on restructuring programhttps://t.co/WFFWziY3v5
— Embracer Group (@embracergroup) June 13, 2023
This process will start from today, moment in which it has been approved, and They are scheduled to last until March of next year 2024, so in this time we will probably see a lot of information about layoffs and game cancellations. Even so, with the latter you should be calm, and it is that with the following words they have wanted to make it clear that it will mainly affect unannounced projects.
The potential impact on the schedule of future game releases will be focused almost entirely on unannounced projects. All announced significant releases will continue to be released as planned.
This communication mentions that currently the company has 17,000 employees in totaland it is made clear again that by the end of this year that number will have decreased, but it is also commented that “it is too early to give an exact forecast in this regard”, that is, it is not yet known how many employees will be laid off.
The bad pitches have probably been the trigger
In this statement, as we have already said, the economic situation of the sector is alluded to, but most likely this is due to certain launches that have not been particularly successful. Although they have had successes, such as Dead Island 2, they have also released games that have not been up to the task, such as the Saints Row reboot.
